DailyConnect: Piloting Interventions of Situation-Based Emotional Understanding in Naturalistic Home Settings for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

DailyConnect is a visual-based mobile application that supports children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in recalling memories by reviewing photos through discrete trial training (DTT) to understand situation-based emotions. To assess DailyConnect and its adaptability to a child’s characteristics and emotional situations, a pilot study was conducted that included 15 children with ASD and their parents and teachers. The DTT steps—memory recall and situation recognition, emotion recognition, emotion cues, facial expression recognition, and response behavior—were reliable in assessing the understanding of emotional situations when compared before and after the intervention in four categories of emotional situations, namely, happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. The results revealed that DailyConnect improves the understanding of situation-based emotions, particularly negative emotions (e.g., sadness: mean diff = −.687, sig. < .01, T = −3.866, d = 1.006; anger: mean diff = −.952, sig. < .01, T = −6.187, d = .705; fear: mean diff = −.961, sig. < .01, T = −5.522, d = .627); however, its effectiveness varied for children in different emotional situations. Furthermore, subjective feedback from participants and users (parents and teachers) provided insights into design considerations for similar mobile aids.